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Education Qualifications for a Network Admin?
Volkov137 asks: "As I ponder where to go after high school for a future job in Network Administration, I have a couple of choices. Either go to a University and get a 4-year bachelors degree in Computer Networking and Administration, or go to a 2-year trade school that will be much more focused on what I need to know. Is the University really worth paying for, and will it mean anything more in today's IT world? Also, how important are certifications (Network+, Cisco, Linux+, etc) when entering this job market?"
I understand that Univ education is expensive but it is worth it. Studying in a univ broadens your outlook in a big way. You can handle competition better because you are amongst intelligent people and you do a lot of networking not to forget the hot chics!! :) A univ is a better developing ground for your overall personality.
Also, don't forget that the older you get, the harder it is to go to school.
"My girlfriend's got sodium laureth sulfate hair."
Unless you plan on administering really large networks, you really don't need school to wire an RJ-45 jack or configure a router. These are things, if you have a technical mind, that you can learn fairly easily from a book.
On the other hand, large networks are where the real fun is. I'd say which schooling to get depends on your long-term goals. There is a lot of theory involved in network design (including a lot of math). A technical program will skip over most of this, which you will regret if you want to do the really important stuff. If you're just looking for a 9-5 and actual implementation, or just smaller networks, you'll probably find the technical program more to your liking.
Be relentless!
eh, maybe maybe not. I have tons of work experience, but recently went up for a job which I didn't get. As it turns out a guy I know did get the job, he had almost no job experience but had a nice fresh 4 year degree, and possibly more importantly, was willing to take less money.
So that was the last straw for me, I'm going back to school this fall to finish off my BA.
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You get great life experiences at college. You have bragging rights that you are a college graduate. College graduates make more money than non-college graduates. You get the proper instruction that you need from very smart professors. You have a whole network of faculty and student members who you can bring your questions to. You can work part time or volunteer and gain work experience AND a college degree. Go get your 4 year degree, it will pay for itself hundreds of times over in the long run.
If you just want to be a network admin, there's really little need for any X-year degree, although if you take it seriously, it can help you develop critical writing, reading and analytical skills nessecary to be successful in the business world. For configuring routers and plugging cables together, a 4 year Bachelor's degree would quite simply be overkill. And you might even find out you'd rather be doing something else instead of Network Administration.
The benefits of the degree here is mostly a worst case scenario. Imagine if Dell, Intel and Cisco got their shit together and realized they could offer their business clients a shitload of value by making a secure and quickly configurable networking system, complete with wireless and other staff reducing technologies. All they'd need is one guy on staff to handle the purchasing and manage the hiring of a few local punks from the local high school to run a few wires to access points over the summer. Now the company wins, the manager might lose a bit of self-importance as his staff and budget is being cut, but the two year degree guy is SOL. I suppose he can go back for another two year degree, although its usually far harder to go back the second time, either because of family or a fodness for material goods and car repairs.
Right now, you're the local high school punk. If you find and study for one or two certs, you should be able to pick up some work. I've seen ads for A+ people in the classifieds, and you can use that income to pick up something serious. As much as I dislike vendor certifications, it is my understanding that Cisco is really respected within IT departments (compared to say, microsoft certs). Long term outlook isn't much better than a two year degree, espcially something like ITT or DeVry. Remember that these places have shareholders; giving accurate but negative advice on the future outlook would hurt enrollment and share price, subsequently. If you're lucky, you make your way to department manager. Otherwise, I hear nursing's always in demand.
The four year degree offers flexibility. Sure, they'll throw a lot of crap at you, and so much of it that very little actually applies to any particular of today's jobs, but you'll also be prepared for far more than just network administration. Furthermore, you're also that much more prepared and likely to be accepted into an MBA program, which often becomes a prerequisite for promotion in the kinds of large networking environments that would need someone with a degree full time.
In summary, a four year degree lends you flexibility, and the two year degree locks you into a career path you may not be happy with five years from now. It's a tragic fact of life that the most important career choices are made now, when you're least informed and capable of making them. As Paul Graham said, stick with the choices that expand future choices, rather than limit them.
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Open Source Sysadmin
One day you might not want to be a systems administrator. Or you night find that because of advances in Microsoft Windows fewer staff are needed. Or the company you work for might switch to Linux, and you suddenly find your skills don't transfer over as well as you had hoped, and some newer college kid gets your job. You might find that some aspects of system administration get outsourced to a virtual call centre in India.
In a lot of large companies, to get into management, you need a degree. Experience alone isn't enough.
> The University will waste your time and money with classes that have no bearing on your job.
No. Life is about more than a job, and university will give yuo a much broader perspective. Unless you want to be a corporate drone or slave for the rest ofyour life, you need to about things that you might not choose to study by yourself. And one day you'll need the contacts, too, the people you met, and the ability to take a longer-term view of life.
A trade school is OK perhaps if you want to be a tradesman, but think of all the CP/M administration skills people learned at trade schools. Not heard of CP/M? Try MS-DOS. What will you learn? Windows 98? Windows XP? It'll be as obsolete within five years. So you need to learn how to learn, and to do that you need to go to the right place for you, and no-one else can tell you where that is.
Try to talk to people who graduated, and see if you can find people similar to yourself.
Your interests will also change (mine did) as you encounter new ideas. The more new ideas you encounter early on, the better idea you'll have of what you want to do, what interests you, what you're good at. The money isn't wasted., unless you throw it away by ignoring the oportunities.
Liam
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Call me a troll if you need but....
after many years of working with people who have not gone to college and those who have, a software engineer or a system administrator that goes to college always has the advantage.
From the 80's of blowing away today's equivilent of heald graduates, to the boom and outsourcing of today where there is no way in Hell India can create 200,000 skilled computer people all from colleges that are as good as ours overnight.
I've been though it all. I've been kicking ass for 23 years. I'm still learning. I'm still reinventing myself. People still feel I have more than enough to contribute.
People who truly go to a 4 year school and learn logic, mathmatics, the algorithms, concepts of multiple computer languages, how to build a compiler, how to create a database. The difference between database and data base, so their, errr... there. This is important. You will use it all, if you are lucky.
A 2 year school teaches just how and what. A college teaches you all 5, what, when where, why and how. When you know why, you can keep learning. If you only know what, your always behind waiting for the next guy to tell you! In this market, you have to reinvent yourself every 3-4 years.
So if a 2 year school gets you working sooner, then go for it. Then do not be disappointed when some "college puke" takes your next job from you.
Now if you want to take the 8 years to earn a degree part time, more power to you. I had to finish school part time. It is truly hard.